Welcome to Weight Off My Shoulders

People have asked me for awhile: Why don’t you blog?  I have written all my life. Grammar School. High School. College. Grad School. Newspaper. My Current Job. I like writing. I think I am decent at it.

The Problem: I don’t like sharing/writing about myself.

I don’t know how many people grew up in the kind of environment where you didn’t really talk about your feelings. If so, you feel me. You just keep them inside and bury them deep down until the basically disappear … or so you think they disappear.

When I was younger, hiding the feelings was easy. I have always been known as a happy/smiling person. But in high school, I think the routine wore on me and finally I felt the emotions.

I found it easy to hide the pain/feelings by working out. Those crazy little endorphins can do a lot to ones attitude and outlook on life.

Recently I went through a pretty bad back issue resulting in surgery; this led me down one emotional spiral – mainly because I was limited from any activity for a good four months. My wife was trying to help me get out of the funk, suggesting I write it down, it would help. But c’mon that’s not how we Irish East Coasters roll. I just let it fester.

It wasn’t until I was medically cleared to be active again that the doom and gloom subsided and I have started to feel like my old self again.

So recently, I have thought. How about I start writing and focusing my energy on something positive? Maybe I can avoid ever getting back to the point I was at for so long.

But then when you start to really think about the idea of sharing your thoughts. You wanna know: What do I write about? Will anyone read bother reading it? Do I just sound like a whiny emo teenager?

So for the past couple weeks that is what I have been mulling over. After seeing so many positive messages coming out of #fitbloggin, I decided to get on the bandwagon. I know late the party, joining the crowd, but I am okay with that.

With that lengthy background story, I welcome you to “Weight Off My Shoulders”:

I will be using this space to document my continued weight loss journey through Weight Watchers, my recovery from back surgery (herniated disc), my training for a half marathon, as well as, my ever need to motivate others.

Recently, I have had quite a few people tell me I inspired them to joint Weight Watchers and that really touched me. I never thought of myself as that kind of person. But you know what, it made me feel good. It made me want to help and share more.

I currently keep an excel spreadsheet of all my friends who are currently on Weight Watchers. I document total weight loss, weigh-in day and lbs ‘til goal weight. It is a reminder of me to check in with people, offer encouragement or advice. If this is something you would like to join, please let me know. *At no point do you have to tell me your actual weight.*

So please, join me on my journey if you wish …